


Days When the Rain Would Come

by 28ghosts



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Bickering, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Unresolved Tension, handwaves Endgame ending, is it mutual pining or mutual antagonism? only time will tell, post-Avengers: Endgame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-02
Updated: 2019-02-02
Packaged: 2019-10-20 17:52:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17626880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/28ghosts/pseuds/28ghosts
Summary: Tony deals with someone unexpected coming to Peter's rescue, someone he really would rather not be playing nice with.





	Days When the Rain Would Come

Three or four things happen in very, very quick succession. First, KAREN pings FRIDAY that Peter is in danger. FRIDAY subsequently alerts Tony, who is in the Compound workshop, of this fact, and Tony has barely had time to tap his nanosuit on when FRIDAY says, calmly, “Boss, you have a call.”

Tony’s heart is absolutely not pounding in his chest; he is absolutely not pulling up every single diagnostic from Peter’s suit that KAREN had transmitted. “Baby girl, is now really the time?”

“It’s from the same coordinates as KAREN’s distress call, boss.”

Which is either very, very good or very, very bad. If Peter gets himself kidnapped, Tony is going to ground him until he graduates college and maybe then some. Peter’s going to have to do actual _work_ in the lab instead of swinging around New York, getting himself in trouble. “Who is it?”

“I’ll ask,” FRIDAY says. It’s weird that’s not immediately traceable; the caller must be using a burner phone. Not good. Tony’s stomach sinks. A beat. “Playing recording.” There’s another beat of silence, and then there’s a ragged, familiar, and very, very unwelcome voice playing through FRIDAY’s speakers: “Stephen Strange.”

Strange sounds hesitant. Good. He should. “Let the call through, FRI. Strange, what the hell happened? Is Peter okay?” And why are you of all people with him, he also wants to ask, but he bites his tongue.

“He’s okay,” Strange says. Answering the most important question first, good. “He, ah, slipped. Chasing a group of rather fast-moving bank robbers.”

“Where are you? I’m on my way.”

“11th and Hudson. I can bring him to you.”

“Is he safe to move?”

“Yes.” Strange sounds as distantly professional as always. Jackass. He could at least pretend to be a little freaked out. “The fall wasn’t that bad. No indications of major trauma, and his pupillary response is fine. Normally I’d recommend taking him to a hospital for signs of concussion, but--”

“Bring him here. If you’re sure.”

“I’m sure. Are you...at the compound?”

“Yep. I’ll be at the entrance level…” Which _should_ be the only level of the Compound Strange has direct access to since it’s the only level Strange has ever been to. If Strange has been telling the truth about the way his portals work, that is. Tony is already halfway to the elevator. His suit ripples back to its resting place in the center of Tony’s chest. “...momentarily.”

There’s a click over the speakers as Strange hangs up. When the elevator opens up, there’s already a sparkling orange circle open in the middle of what used to be the Compound’s living room. Bit of a misnomer to call it a living room when Tony’s the only person in the Compound most of these days, and he spends most of his time either in the lab or sleeping on the floor of his lab. But there’s couches. Chairs. A TV.

Through the circle, through a portal that Tony’s still pretty sure _shouldn’t exist_ in accordance with the laws of physics, it’s dark, and it’s raining. And there’s Stephen Strange, with Peter’s body slung over his shoulders.

“I didn’t realize it was raining,” Tony says.

Strange steps through the portal. It flickers out of existence behind him. “It’s been raining for two days straight,” he says neutrally.

“Oh.”

“Where should I…”

Tony jerks his head towards one of the sofas. Strange moves more gracefully than Tony had expected even while hauling an unconscious teenager around. Maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise. He moved around capably enough during the handful of fights they’ve been in together, after all. But somehow it hadn’t quite clicked that all of Stephen’s strength wasn’t, like, magic. Of course, the robes aren’t exactly built to flatter. Strange must be hiding some muscle under there.

“Slipped on a rooftop, banged his head pretty hard on some pipe,” Strange says after he’s laid Peter down. “I suspect he won’t be out for long.”

Tony pulls Peter’s mask off. There’s blood streaming down from his scalp, one cut over his eyebrow, and one of his cheekbones is bruised. “How’d you know he was in trouble anyways?” Tony asks. He smooths Peter’s hair back, feeling with his fingers for lumps. There’s a big one on his scalp where the blood’s coming from, big shock.

“He was...in my neighborhood.” When Tony looks up from Peter to stare skeptically, Strange shrugs. “Near the Sanctum.”

There’s gotta be more to it than that, but Tony won’t press it for now. “I’ll go get supplies from the infirmary level. Don’t move.”

“If you’d prefer stay with him, I could--”

“I’d kinda prefer it if you stayed -- here. This floor.” Tony gestures. “I like knowing you can’t now-you’re-thinking-with-portals in on me anywhere else in the building.” Strange’s brow is furrowed. “Y’know, like the video game Portal?”

Tony has always been good at keeping people on the back foot just by talking quickly enough. Strange is no exception. He stares at Tony until he finally shakes his head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, well. Not important. It’s good, though. You should play it.” Tony says this all as blithely as possible, as if he hasn’t only heard of it because Peter introduced him to it. “Stay. Watch Peter.”

Strange nods. “I will,” he says seriously.

Not that he really needs to. If anything weird happens, FRIDAY will alert Tony probably faster than Strange could even notice. It doesn’t take long for Tony to grab everything he needs from his own stash, and he only asks FRIDAY to confirm that Strange hasn’t left Peter’s side, like, three times.

When Tony comes back, Strange has barely moved. Tony spreads the medical stuff out on one of the coffee tables. Mostly disinfectants and bandages, not that Peter really needs them, probably, but you never know.

“I was going to offer to get supplies from the Sanctum earlier,” Strange says. “Not from...wherever it is that you keep them.”

There’s a cut over one of Peter’s eyebrows. When Tony swabs the dried blood away, he can see Peter’s skin already starting to heal. “Huh. Great. Glad you brought that up, Doc.”

Strange sighs. “I don’t have any interest in...thinking about portals or whatever it is you said.”

“Do me a favor and don’t try to make pop culture references you don’t understand,” Tony snaps. And then feels bad mostly because that was probably Strange’s awful attempt at reassurance. And it had been a truly bad one, but it had been an effort.

He frowns and tosses a wadded-up alcohol swab at the wall.

“Thanks, though,” he manages to say.

“If Peter’s alright, I can…”

Tony interrupts Strange by pointing to Peter. “Show me the pupil thingy,” he says. “Uh. Please. If you don’t have somewhere else to be.”

Instead of a witty comeback, Strange sighs. He walks Tony through the steps of gently lifting back Peter’s eyelids and shining a light (from Tony’s phone) at an angle, watching how quickly the kid’s pupils expand and contract. “If there’s ever any asymmetry in response, or if they’re sluggish to change or don’t change, err on the side of caution and take him to a hospital,” Strange says, as Tony checks again. “He heals quickly, but I wouldn’t risk it with a subcranial hemorrhage.”

“Brain bleeding bad,” Tony says. “Thanks, didn’t know that.”

He can all but hear Strange roll his eyes.

“Right. Thanks then, Doc, but I’ve got it from here.”

“Right,” Strange says. “If anything changes, you...know how to reach me.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Tony sees the Cloak rearrange itself on Strange’s shoulders. It’s sopping wet and looks pretty pathetic, if Tony’s honest. For a moment, he feels like a jerk. Strange has obviously been keeping an eye on the kid, and he’s soaked to the bone, stupid hair plastered to his head. Tony should offer him something warm to drink, at least.

Except it’s still Strange’s fault Peter vanished into the Soul Stone and then came back with nightmares he still can’t get the kid to admit to. Saving him from one mission gone wrong doesn’t magically undo that.

“Did the...guys Peter was trying to stop get caught?”

For a moment, there’s a ghost of a smile on Strange’s face. “I sent them to Hell’s Kitchen.”

“Hell’s Kitchen?”

“I know a guy,” Strange says cryptically.

“Great. Glad to hear it.”

Strange nods, steps away from where Peter’s lying on the couch, and does his ridiculous hand gestures.

The portal opens up to nothing but grey sky and falling rain. Tony had expected the Sanctum, or at least a rooftop in sight, but he watches Strange stride towards it like it’s not just _nothing_. And for a moment, Tony’s heart slips in his chest down to where his stomach is supposed to be; he half-expects Strange to take a step through and then plummet out of sight. Instead, the cape snaps to attention, Strange hovers in midair, and then the portal disappears.

Tony pitches his pen at the spot where Strange had just been. It lands in the puddle of rainwater that’s formed where Strange had been standing. “Huh. I expected wizards to be more waterproof,” he says to no one. “FRI, how’s Peter?”

“All signs normal, boss.”

“Expected you to be more waterproof, too,” Tony tells Peter. Right now he’s thinking oil -- a little bit of water on asphalt, then oil, then water -- that’s harder to stick a landing on than just water. He’ll need to clean the Spider-suit off, take samples, see if there’s anything amiss. He kinda wants to go through KAREN’s logs from the night, but he’ll wait for Peter to wake up and give him permission.

He doesn’t think about Stephen Strange, showing up soaking wet with Peter in a fireman’s carry. Strange’s sorcerer get-up is probably made out of enough fabric to clothe an entire bridal party, so long as the bridesmaids don’t mind stodgy and navy blue, so no wonder there’s water everywhere. And Tony definitely doesn’t think about Strange’s expression as he’d laid Peter down. Pale and terrified and the kind of guilty that Tony normally only sees when he catches a glimpse of his own reflection in something shiny.

“Magicians,” he says to FRIDAY. His heart’s not in it. “More trouble than they’re worth.”

**Author's Note:**

> For the IronStrange Haven Discord's weekly prompt challenge; title taken from the Bob Seger song.
> 
> My MCU blog is [the-strange-rule](https://the-strange-rule.tumblr.com/); come [talk Tony/Stephen](https://the-strange-rule.tumblr.com/ask)? (I take prompts!)


End file.
